League holds first shoot at new facility

Logan County Shooting Sports Complex to open soon

Shooters take aim at targets Wednesday during the first night of a fall trap shooting league at the Logan County Shooting Sports Complex. The new facility is not officially open yet, but it is expected to open soon, sometime in October, after some finishing touches are completed. (Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

The sound of gunfire was a welcome one earlier this week. While the Logan County Shooting Sports Complex isn't officially open yet, a fall trap shooting league held their first shoots at the new facility Wednesday and Thursday evening.

"We've come a long way," said Dennis Vierow, president of the LCSSC Advisory Board, as he watched shot guns being fired Wednesday evening.

It's been two and a half years since Logan County bought the property where the facility is located, 12515 Highway 61. To get there, take the first right past Leisure Lane (motels), before the Sterling Correctional Facility entrance.

In addition to two trap houses, the facility includes rifle, pistol, sporting clays, skeet and archery ranges. Construction of the new shooting range was funded in part by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The trap shooting league, which will run through Oct. 12 and 13, was informally set up through fliers and word-of-mouth. It was set up with a maximum of 20 teams, 10 per night, allowed and Vierow is excited to be close to that limit with a total of 18 teams (90 people) participating in the fall league. There are 10 teams shooting on Wednesday evenings and eight shooting on Thursdays.

For those interested, the facility is planning to offer another spring league in the late winter/early spring.

"It's fantastic to see this many people out here shooting on night number one," said Logan County Commissioner Dave Donaldson Wednesday. He thanked the LCSSC Advisory Board for all the hard work they've put in to bring the facility to life.

Advertisement

League participants at the fist shooting night, who came from Sterling and other surrounding communities including Fort Morgan and Brush, were excited to once again have a shooting range in Sterling.

"It's good; it's nice to have one around here finally," said Robert Bashore, a member of the Department of Corrections team.

Drew Schendel, of Merino, agreed: "It's awesome. I missed having (a shooting range) here." He said he plans to use the facility a lot.

Kim Krier, a LCSSC Advisory Board member who was busy keeping score on the league's opening night, is part of a group of local citizens who have spent many years working to bring a public shooting range to Sterling. She could not be more thrilled with the new facility.

"When I first got here I was so excited to see three or four cars and I thought, oh my God, look at how far we've come. This used to be just hills; now we're shooting out here," said Krier, who is in her 40th year of shooting. "To be a part of putting something like this together is amazing."

An official opening date for LCSSC has not yet been set, but according to Vierow they hope to open soon, sometime in October, after some finishing touches are completed.

For more information on the shooting range, call Vierow at 970-520-2341, like the Logan County Shooting Sports Complex Facebook page, or visit www.colorado.gov/lcssc.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.